Col'Cacchio Pizza Challenge 2012

Last week I received a large white box tied with a red ribbon from Col'Cacchio. I could tell it was too big to be a pizza like last time (boo) but when I opened it I was pleasantly surprised with an awesome selection of do-it-yourself pizza supplies including pizza dough, fresh tomato sauce, thyme, rocket, avo, mozzarella, salt and pepper, olive oil, chillies, a rolling pin and a pizza cutter. The sheer excitement!

Nash and I wasted no time in turning up the oven and rolling out the dough for our homemade pizza dinner. We (I) decided that instead of one big pizza, we'd do four little ones and experiment with toppings. I'm a kitchen genius like that.

We had some amazing Richard Bosman Real Bacon and two cheeses from Klein River Cheese Farm (danbo and leiden with caraway seeds), a bottle of Pronto Mama slow roasted cherry tomatoes, a jar of feta and a jar of chilli apple jelly in the fridge to play around with. We used the Col'Cacchio tomato sauce base on each of the pizzas and added some mozzarella cheese.

Then we started getting creative with ingredients. We had:  a bacon, feta and avo (not really very creative, but a definite classic), a bacon, two cheese and apple jelly with thyme (amazing), a Pronto Mama, feta and rocket and the Cheezestreme - mozzarella, danbo, leiden and feta with bacon and fresh oregano. I got a little excited about the first three and forgot the Cheezestreme in the oven so it came out looking a little like a pizza made of coal and tasting a little like a veld fire (I ate it anyway, obvs.)

 Bacon, avo and feta (back) and

Two cheeses, bacon and chilli apple jelly with thyme (front)

Pronto Mama slow roasted cherry tomatoes, cheese and rocket

Cheezestreme/ Veld Fire

This fun little project was to get into the mood for Col'Cacchio's new Chef Series 2012 campaign. Every year, Col'Cacchio gets four celebrity chefs to create a signature pizza for their menu. R5 from every pizza sold goes to charity. This year, they've invited three chefs, and left one spot open to the public/wannabe chefs/foodies. Naturally, I want to win this, badly.

To enter the Col'Cacchio Pizza Challenge, create your own original pizza on the Col'Cacchio website before 25 June 2012. The top 5 recipes will be judged by Col'Cacchio's chefs and the winning recipe will feature on the menu for the month of August. The winner also gets a year's worth of free pizza! Carbocide!

My pizza is called the Dolce e Salato del Capo which means "Sweet And Savoury Cape" and is based on my love for cheese and preserves and the Cape Winelands.

A tomato base with mozzarella, brie cheese, apple jelly and thyme.

It's sipmle, but delicious and is obviously going to be the winner. But you can submit yours anyway.

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